The invention relates to a riveting tool, and more particularly to a riveting tool for placing blind, breakstem, rivets. Such a rivet comprises a generally tubular shell, and a stem extending through the shell and protruding from one end thereof. In use, the shell is inserted through suitable aligned apertures in workpieces to be joined together, and a riveting tool is applied to the rivet and is operated to place the rivet. The tool comprises a hollow nosepiece at the forward end of which is an annular anvil for contacting that end of the rivet shell from which the rivet stem protrudes through the annular anvil, and, inside the hollow nosepiece, a stem-engaging device into which protrudes at least one part of the rivet stem remote from the shell. In use, the stem-gripping device is retracted with respect to the anvil, thereby engaging the stem and applying tension to it with respect to the shell. This causes the shell to deform and rivet the workpieces together, and the part of the stem remote from the shell thereafter breaks off to leave minimal protrusion of the rivet from the workpieces.
Usually the tool comprises a body on which the nosepiece is mounted, with the anvil at the end thereof remote from the body. The stem-engaging device is mounted on the forward end of a drawbar which is reciprocable with respect to the nosepiece by means of a motor, which is commonly a pneumatic, or hydro-pneumatic or electro-hydro-pneumatic device contained within the body or part of the body.
Such rivets are called ""s blind rivets""s because they can be installed by access to only one side of the workpieces. An example of such rivets are those well known and readily available in many countries of the world under the registered trademark AVEX. Hydro-pneumatic tools for installing them are well known and readily available under the registered trademark GENESIS. Such a tool is described, for example GB 2301547 A, with the exception of the anvil and stem-engaging device, for which the reader is referred to, for example, GB 1 004 361.
Rivets of different sizes, i.e. of different diameters of shell and different diameters of stem, require different appropriate sizes of nosepiece anvil, and stem-engaging device respectively, to properly install them. It has therefore been usual to provide a riveting tool with a body, a motor and a drawbar, on to which a suitable nosetip and rivet-engaging device can be mounted. In prior art tools, the nosepiece is threadedly engaged with the body, and the stem-engaging device is threadedly engaged with the drawbar. Consequently, removal of the nosetip and stem-engaging device for service replacement, or for replacement by components of a different size, involves lengthy removal of the tool from active use. Under present-day production-line conditions, such lengthy xe2x80x98down-timexe2x80x99, as it is called, is not acceptable.
The present invention seeks to overcome the disadvantage, by speeding up the removal and replacement process.
The invention provides, in one of its aspects, a riveting tool as set out in claim 1 of the appended claims.
The invention also provides further preferred features as set out in claims 2 to 12 of the appended claims.